Well, I have loved and been listening/watching UK baseball since around 2006. It isn't as long as many, but still, never in my years of watching have I wanted to ask the question, "Are we there yet?" Well, we're not. We are only approaching the halfway point. Still, at this point in the season UK sits somewhat firmly in last place at 2-10. South Carolina is the closest team at 3-9 and Tennessee, Florida, and Alabama are all 4-8.
Georgia sits on top of the table at 9-3 while Arkansas, LSU, and Ole Miss are at 8-4.
This weekend UK will head to Oxford to face the Ole Miss Rebels.
Amazingly... stats have actually improved for UK. We are no longer dead last in the SEC in ERA thanks in large part to committing so many errors. We have 43 errors on the season and 20 in SEC play. Those 20 errors lead the league with the next closest team (Arkansas) having 18 and Missouri having 17. Everyone else is under 15. Our fielding percentage is an abysmal .956. The league average is .972.
Our team ERA in conference play is sitting at 5.72 which is 11th in the league. Florida is actually now in last with an ERA of 7.41. Florida is swirling the toilet and really the only thing saving them from being in the same car with UK is that Florida swept Alabama. This past weekend Florida gave up 12, 16, and 12 against Ole Miss (which is scary for UK). UK has given up the second most runs in the league, behind only Florida (89 to 99), but UK has amazingly given up just 65 earned runs out of those 89 while Florida, for instance, has given up 84. Missouri is leading the league in team ERA in conference play with a 2.02 ERA and they have given up just 25 earned runs so far.
An interesting thing to see is that UK has just 4 pitchers that have over 10 innings pitched. Thompson has thrown 27 innings in league play. Maccocchi, Harper, and Ramsey are at 14.1, 10.1, and 11.1. I think that is a pretty good measure of just how inconsistent and unreliable our second an third starters are.
Hitting has possibly gotten a tiny bump lately as UK is also 11th in batting in the conference with a .222 average. South Carolina sits at last in the league hitting .189 and Mississippi State is up on top at .314. Interestingly, UK is one of just 4 teams without a triple this season in SEC. While that wouldn't surprise me a ton in some years, it is a bit more surprising this year given that we are second in the league in base stealing attempts. Another interesting thing to note, and this one really makes me mad... UK has 0 (that's correct, 0) sac flies in SEC play. So, we are entirely unable to hit deep fly balls to help manufacture runs and to move up runners. We are the only team in the league that have 0.
Opposing pitchers have to be licking their chops to face UK. We are, by far, the worst in the league in terms of strikeouts. We have 140 on the year. That means that 34 percent of our plate appearances end in a strikeout.
Due to the fact that I am a horrible person... I am going to break this down by worst offenders:
Breydon Daniel tops the list. The JUCO is striking out in 47 percent of his plate appearances and he is hitting just .156 in conference. He also has a fielding percentage of .912 in conference. Why is he on the field at all?
TJ Collett has 19 strikeouts in 45 at bats. He is striking out in 42 percent of his at bats while carrying a .178 batting average.
Coltyn Kessler has 16 in 39 at bats, 41 percent.
Dalton Reed has 16 in 42 at bats, 38 percent. This one is especially egregious to me given that Reed has 1 walk. So, his OBP is .163 and he is hitting .143 in conference play. He has 0 extra base hits of any kind. So, we find another JUCO kid and have to ask... why is he playing?
Alex Rodriguez has had just 13 at bats, but he has struck out 6 times (46%). The UK short stop is batting .077 in conference play.
Rook Ellington looks to technically be the worst offender. He has just 7 at bats in conference play and has struck out in 5 of them, or 71 percent. He is hitless in conference play, and has one HBP.
We have 7 guys who have struck out more than 10 times... we don't have a single player with more than 8 true base on balls.
![[sick]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/sick/sick0006.r191677.gif "Sick [sick]")
Georgia sits on top of the table at 9-3 while Arkansas, LSU, and Ole Miss are at 8-4.
This weekend UK will head to Oxford to face the Ole Miss Rebels.
Amazingly... stats have actually improved for UK. We are no longer dead last in the SEC in ERA thanks in large part to committing so many errors. We have 43 errors on the season and 20 in SEC play. Those 20 errors lead the league with the next closest team (Arkansas) having 18 and Missouri having 17. Everyone else is under 15. Our fielding percentage is an abysmal .956. The league average is .972.
Our team ERA in conference play is sitting at 5.72 which is 11th in the league. Florida is actually now in last with an ERA of 7.41. Florida is swirling the toilet and really the only thing saving them from being in the same car with UK is that Florida swept Alabama. This past weekend Florida gave up 12, 16, and 12 against Ole Miss (which is scary for UK). UK has given up the second most runs in the league, behind only Florida (89 to 99), but UK has amazingly given up just 65 earned runs out of those 89 while Florida, for instance, has given up 84. Missouri is leading the league in team ERA in conference play with a 2.02 ERA and they have given up just 25 earned runs so far.
An interesting thing to see is that UK has just 4 pitchers that have over 10 innings pitched. Thompson has thrown 27 innings in league play. Maccocchi, Harper, and Ramsey are at 14.1, 10.1, and 11.1. I think that is a pretty good measure of just how inconsistent and unreliable our second an third starters are.
Hitting has possibly gotten a tiny bump lately as UK is also 11th in batting in the conference with a .222 average. South Carolina sits at last in the league hitting .189 and Mississippi State is up on top at .314. Interestingly, UK is one of just 4 teams without a triple this season in SEC. While that wouldn't surprise me a ton in some years, it is a bit more surprising this year given that we are second in the league in base stealing attempts. Another interesting thing to note, and this one really makes me mad... UK has 0 (that's correct, 0) sac flies in SEC play. So, we are entirely unable to hit deep fly balls to help manufacture runs and to move up runners. We are the only team in the league that have 0.
Opposing pitchers have to be licking their chops to face UK. We are, by far, the worst in the league in terms of strikeouts. We have 140 on the year. That means that 34 percent of our plate appearances end in a strikeout.
Due to the fact that I am a horrible person... I am going to break this down by worst offenders:
Breydon Daniel tops the list. The JUCO is striking out in 47 percent of his plate appearances and he is hitting just .156 in conference. He also has a fielding percentage of .912 in conference. Why is he on the field at all?
TJ Collett has 19 strikeouts in 45 at bats. He is striking out in 42 percent of his at bats while carrying a .178 batting average.
Coltyn Kessler has 16 in 39 at bats, 41 percent.
Dalton Reed has 16 in 42 at bats, 38 percent. This one is especially egregious to me given that Reed has 1 walk. So, his OBP is .163 and he is hitting .143 in conference play. He has 0 extra base hits of any kind. So, we find another JUCO kid and have to ask... why is he playing?
Alex Rodriguez has had just 13 at bats, but he has struck out 6 times (46%). The UK short stop is batting .077 in conference play.
Rook Ellington looks to technically be the worst offender. He has just 7 at bats in conference play and has struck out in 5 of them, or 71 percent. He is hitless in conference play, and has one HBP.
We have 7 guys who have struck out more than 10 times... we don't have a single player with more than 8 true base on balls.
